G. ter Haarhttp://repub.eur.nl/ppl/22910/
List of Publicationsenhttp://repub.eur.nl/eur_signature.pnghttp://repub.eur.nl/
RePub, Erasmus University RepositoryMixed Blessing: Religion in contemporary politicshttp://repub.eur.nl/pub/40512/
Tue, 01 Jan 2013 00:00:01 GMT<div>G. ter Haar</div>
The focus of this volume is on religious actors as important social actors
or drivers of change, particularly as promoters of social change, democracy
and development. It is an acknowledgement of the vital role that
religious communities and similar organised groups and their leaders play
in achieving goals that Western policy-makers and development agents
consider important for the progress of many non-Western societies, which
are also often poor. While such a focus reflects an important insight into
the functioning of those societies, in my article I want to move away from
the emphasis on the institutional aspect of religion – easiest for us to
deal with – and highlight the importance of the type of ideas that sustain
religious communities: something far more difficult to grasp and work
with, but of crucial importance for effective forms of cooperation. We
have to ask ourselves what kinds of ideas drive religious actors – most of
whom are ordinary believers – and motivate them to do the sort of things
they actually do. This will help us to explain why they do them, and why
in this particular way. We need to understand the thinking, reasoning
and motivation of faith-inspired actors. For effective cooperation it is
important that civil society groups, even if they are secular, collaborate
with religious communities and their leaders not just in practical terms,
as they often do, but also engage with them at the level of ideas.The Invisible Worlds of Religion and Economyhttp://repub.eur.nl/pub/40577/
Thu, 09 Feb 2012 00:00:01 GMT<div>G. ter Haar</div>
Twelve years ago I accepted my Chair at ISS with an inaugural lecture entitled Rats,
Cockroaches and People Like Us, in which I discussed the relation between people’s views
of humanity and actual human rights. In it I made a plea for an intelligent use of the wide
range of religious and spiritual resources available to people all over the world for the sake
of human rights. In subsequent years I have expanded this argument by advocating the
inclusion of religious resources for development in the broadest sense. Twelve years later it
seems that, at least in the Netherlands, this remains a controversial proposal, especially in
view of the great changes in the political climate at home and abroad since the dramatic
events in 2001.Religion and Development. What’s in Two Names: Symposium on the 10th Anniversary of the Chair of Religion and Development, 11 June 2009http://repub.eur.nl/pub/40520/
Thu, 11 Jun 2009 00:00:01 GMT<div>G. ter Haar</div>
This compilation brings together in one booklet some of Professor Ter Haar’s most important essays and papers on the theme of religion and development - a ‘taster’ of the work she has produced over the past 10 years.Rats, cockroaches and people like us : views of humanity and human righthttp://repub.eur.nl/pub/30880/
Thu, 13 Apr 2000 00:00:01 GMT<div>G. ter Haar</div>
Many people appear to believe that there are a growing number of
religious conflicts in the world, particularly since the end of the Cold
War. On closer examination, however, it seems that the number of
conflicts of the type which are today often labelled 'ethnic' or' 'religious'
has in fact been growing since the 1950s'. Many such conflicts
were already detectable in the period of the Cold War, but at that time,
they were usually interpreted within a framework of East-West relations.